The Affordable Care Act (ACA), or “Obamacare,” has generated controversy from its inception. Republicans vow to repeal it. Democrats vow to defend it. Yet, unfortunately, many ordinary Americans seem not to know what it does or why some people want to reform it.

What does the ACA actually do?

At its heart, the ACA did three things.

First, it expanded health insurance coverage. It did so primarily by expanding Medicaid, the government’s (mostly) free health insurance plan for the poor, and by providing subsidies to the almost-poor so they could buy health insurance on the ACA’s “insurance exchanges.”

These insurance expansions are projected to cost roughly US$1.4 trillion over the first 10 years after the ACA’s implementation and cover between 22 and 32 million additional Americans. This expansion in coverage represents one of the, if not the, signal achievement of the ACA.

Read more at The Conversation